Electronic speech recognition can include voice recognition or speaker identification, which is used for authentication of a person speaking. That is, with speech recognition, the identity of a person is revealed through voice of the person speaking. For example, analysis of the speech transmitted over a phone call can reveal or confirm the identity of the person according to their transmitted voice.
Speech authentication is a process of showing that the identity of the person is valid according to the speech or voice of the person. Speech authentication seeks to minimize false positives, such as authenticating speech of a person who is not actually the person, and false negatives, such as not authenticating speech of a person who is actually the person.
Speech with practice can be copied with regard to accent, intonation, pitch, and even individualized, which can increase false positives. For example, entertainment impersonators have demonstrated the ability to mimic the speech of other persons.
Conversely, speech for an individual can vary. For example, a spoken pattern can vary in speed, timbre, pitch, loudness and emotion.